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Only God knows why anyone would
climb into an ultralight aircraft and attempt to lead a flock of
birds from Wisconsin to Florida, but if you are so inclined, at some
point you must cross the Appalachian Mountains. After over-flying
the plains of Indiana and the rolling hills of Kentucky you run
smack into an obstacle that is one of the oldest geographic features
on the continent. They are not exceptional by the standards we use
to measure mountains but their valleys and peaks helped to write the
history of America. Once towering higher than the Rockies they have
been worn down over millennia until they are as craggy and familiar
as the wrinkle around your grandfather’s eyes.
Weather, and the endurance of the birds dictate
how much ground we can cover on a given day and both of these
factors conspired to position us on the north side of the Cumberland
Ridge on day 41 of the migration. In order to progress we had to
force climb the birds at least 2500 ft in the first five miles of
the days 47 mile journey. Brooke was to lead, and as he flew low
over the pen Sara and Charlie released the birds and they took off
in hot pursuit of his small craft. They climbed steadily into a
slight headwind and reached about 500 feet before beginning to break
off. Richard moved in to collect a few, and so did I but a bird,
discouraged by slow progress and a hard climb will take any
justification to turn back. A lower aircraft going in the opposite
direction is excuse enough and soon we had birds all over the sky.
Close to the mountain where the wind rolls over the ridge, the air
was bumpy so we moved north in large circles pushing them up
whenever they formed on the wing. To discourage them from heading
back to the pen we asked the ground crew to bring out the large
camouflage tarps that we call the swamp monsters. Still they were
intent on landing so the crew drove trucks out to the pen site and
honked their horns. This kept the flock airborne long enough for us
to try again.
Two birds formed on Richard’s wing and took
advantage of the free ride as he climbed up to 3000 feet. As best we
can determine, cranes learn the migration route by making the
journey under their own steam. With this unbroken string of
knowledge they can make it back - even if they don’t follow the
same path. Moving them in crates breaks this chain of awareness so
the more birds that complete each leg, the more there are to show
the others the way on the return trip. With this in mind I told
Richard to take what he could get and he disappeared over the ridge
heading for the next site. Brooke was slowly working the main group
higher but with each hundred feet gained a few would drop lower so I
moved in to pick up the stragglers. Four birds followed me but only
if we were heading in the direction of the pen. Whenever we turned
on course they would string out in a long line and we were beginning
to lose track of them all. Reluctantly, I called the crew to move
the trucks out and led these four back to the pen.
Five miles to the west, the remaining ten birds
again broke from Brooke’s wing and headed home. Together we
managed to intercept them. Brooke picked up one tired bird and five
formed on my wing while the other four dropped down to treetop
level. With a single bird, Brooke was able to climb faster than me
and he soon cleared the ridge at 4000 feet. At 3200 feet I was
higher than the turbulence, and I finally turned on course. The
stopwatch on the panel said we had already been flying for 47
minutes. Don and Paula Lounsbury, flying the Cessna, 1000 feet
overhead, stayed behind to ensure the four remaining birds
eventually make it back to the pen and as I passed over the ridge a
thousand feet over them they appeared like white dots over the trees
below.
Once over the ridge we had to cover 25 miles of
high plateau. Richard was nearing the destination with two birds,
Brooke was halfway there with another, and I had five far behind
him. At least I did have five but I could only count four. I circled
once to see that one of my birds had dropped out and was gliding to
the valley floor. Reluctant to give up all the altitude we had
worked so hard for, I kept an eye on him as long as possible and
radioed the ground crew that they would have one more bird to track.
The wind was out of the east and had little
effect on our course. It neither pushed us along nor held us back as
we crossed the Cumberland Plateau and headed southeast towards
Hiwassee State Wildlife Refuge. We droned along at 3500 feet, and
occasionally flew a tight circled to try and locate the lone
straggler but he was nowhere in sight.
Three of the four birds that Don and Paula were
watching and expecting to return to the pen kept turning back and
forth along the north face of the ridge but the fourth separated
from the group and they soon lost sight of it. You could hear the
surprise in Paula’s voice when after 15 minutes she announced over
the radio that the three remaining birds eventually gained enough
altitude to cross the ridge at treetop level. From two thousand feet
overhead they watched the three small white dots circle in what
initially appeared to be random wanderings. But after each haphazard
circuit they would head south in the direction that they had last
seen the ultralights. It is strictly speculation but it appeared as
if they were flying a search pattern, hoping to find their lost
leaders.
The team was spread out over the entire course.
Dan Sprague and Jane Chandler were on the ground next to the pen at
Hiwassee waiting to call Richard’s two birds (#303 & #305)
down when he arrived. Brooke was at 4000 feet and halfway there with
one bird (#304). I was still over the plateau with four on the wing
and one far below me (#306, #313, #317, #318 & #319) while Don
and Paula tracked the three birds (#302, #309 & #311) heading
southeast by themselves. One other bird (#316) was still unaccounted
for; presumably still on the north side of the ridge, and four
(#301, #307, #310 & #312) were back in the pen at the last
stopover.
Sitting at 4000 feet in calm air with four
birds locked onto the wing was the perfect spot to observe the whole
show. I could hear radio conversations at both ends and was privy to
the progress of each subgroup. As Don and Paula tracked the three
birds south we moved farther to the southeast, and the distance
between us increased. Since 9-11 a five-mile airspace restriction
has been placed around nuclear power plants and as they headed south
Don and Paula began to encroach on one of these areas. Two military
F16 fighters streaked by below them and scattered the birds they
were following. Mistaking the presence of fighter jets as a possible
intercept they immediately switched to the international emergency
radio frequency to make sure they were not being warned to stay
clear. Hearing nothing they called Knoxville Center and were
informed that yes they had them on radar but the military jets were
simply on a practise mission and not interested in them. They were
also told that two more F16’s were inbound so as the birds circled
closer to the power station Don and Paula broke off and returned to
the last stop to regroup.
Dan and Jane called Richard’s two birds down
when he arrived and moved them into the pen. He landed across the
river where we had planned to keep the aircraft and they headed east
in the tracking vehicle to locate Don and Paula’s birds.
Mike Voechting, Lara Fondow and Anne Lacy were
using the Windway Capital Cessna to track last years birds and the
last we heard they were somewhere in Tennessee. I asked Heather to
call them to see if they could lend a hand. She found them on the
ground at Nashville airport and within the hour they had picked up a
signal and were circling over the wayward birds 20 miles to the east
of our destination.
Brooke arrived at the Hiwassee pen before me
and circled down from 4000 feet. Dan and Jane had already left to
track the missing birds so he landed in the very rough field and
called my four birds down, along with his one. As they circled the
pen, getting lower with each pass, I stayed aloft and counted six
birds in the landing pattern and Brooke confirmed that number. This
meant that the one bird that dropped out of my flight had somehow
managed to follow me for two hours at tree top level. We made the
journey at 4000 feet while it kept us in sight far below and finally
caught up to its flockmates when we reached our destination. We now
had 8 birds in the pen with the last ones landing after 2 hours and
52 minutes.
I stayed airborne to listen to the
conversations between Mike Voechting and Dan. Mike, Lara and Ann
were keeping good tabs on the birds and trying to direct Dan and
Jane to a field where they could don their costumes and use the
loudspeaker bird caller to call them down. Before Dan and Jane could
set up at each site the birds would circle away out of earshot, and
they would have to jump back in the truck and run to the next
potential drop zone. This went on for over an hour and at one point
Dan and Jane decided to set up at a baseball diamond in the town of
Athens. They charged onto the field in full costume waving the
tracking antenna and broadcasting the calls at full volume while the
groundskeeper came out of his office and scratched his head. Before
they could explain, the birds moved on and they jumped back into the
truck to race off to the next unknown location ahead.
In the meantime, Brooke and I landed with
Richard and joined Heather and others listening to the proceedings
on her handheld radio. Richard headed back to the last site in the
truck to see if he could help, and we drained the remaining fuel
from his and Brooke’s aircraft into mine. This gave me an hour’s
endurance and I headed east to see if I could intercept them or at
least lead them to the pickup team. Unfortunately, heading into the
wind, I was unable to be of any assistance and by the time I arrived
back at the landing site an hour later, they were still tracking
birds. After a total flight time of 5 hours and 22 minutes Mike
directed Dan to an isolated field and the 3 errant cranes finally
landed next to them. They were loaded into crates and moved to the
Hiwassee pen. Mike, Lara and Ann then headed north to find the only
missing bird. As suspected it did not cross the ridge and they were
able to get a signal close to the starting point. They had to break
off to refuel but before they left they gave road directions to the
ground team. When Sara and Richard arrived in the area they used the
handheld tracking radio to locate the bird that by now was resting
comfortably in an isolated pond. It was crated and moved back to the
starting point with the other 4 that didn’t make the trip. All
these birds where crated and moved with the pen to Hiwassee and by
late evening all the birds were at the new site.
In each migration there is one story that
sticks out as the most exciting, and hopefully it is behind us for
this trip. If you are able to follow this convoluted account it is
due more to your reading skills than my writing. The end result is
that 8 birds completed this leg of the journey but 8 others were
crated over that same distance. With luck they will stay together on
the return trip long enough to bridge this gap and the knowledge of
a complete migration will be passed from one group to the other. In
the end, all of the birds arrived unharmed and none were approached
by un-costumed people, so our protocol remains intact. More
importantly the crew was safe.
None of this would be possible without this
professional team of dedicated and determined people who have been
on the road now for 48 days with no end in sight. |
